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Downtown Asheville has less violent crime than several other city neighborhoods

Downtown Asheville on November 9, 2023.
Laura Hackett
Downtown Asheville on November 9, 2023.

Over the past few years, a growing chorus of voices called for improved public safety efforts for downtown Asheville. County and City law enforcement complied, instituting an effort called The Downtown Safety Initiative to increase police presence in the city's center.

But a new analysis by Joel Burgess at The Citizen Times shows violent crime in several other neighborhoods exceeds violent crime downtown. Areas of Asheville with public housing have the highest incidence of robbery, rape, sexual assault and murder.

Read more at Downtown Asheville not so dangerous? Data: These neighborhoods have more crime, violence.

Laura Lee began her journalism career as a producer and booker at NPR. She returned to her native North Carolina to manage The State of Things, a live daily statewide show on WUNC. After working as a managing editor of an education journalism start-up, she became a writer and editor at a national education publication, Edutopia. She then served as the news editor at Carolina Public Press, a statewide investigative newsroom. In 2022, she worked to build collaborative coverage of elections administration and democracy in North Carolina.

Laura received her master’s in journalism from the University of Maryland and her bachelor’s degree in political science and J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.